DE LOREAN FACES NEW INDICTMENTS

John Z. De Lorean, acquitted last year of drug charges, was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday on 15 counts of racketeering, wire and mail fraud, tax evasion and interstate transportation of stolen money.

U.S. Attorney Joel Shere said the indictment alleges that from Oct. 1, 1978, through Sept. 20, 1985, the 60-year-old former automaker devised a scheme to defraud De Lorean Research Limited Partnership.

The indictment is a result of a two-year investigation by the FBI and Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS in Detroit.

DRLP raised about $18.7 million from limited partner investors for research and development of the De Lorean sports car, Shere said. De Lorean Motor Co., controlled by De Lorean himself, was the general partner of De Lorean Research.

The indictment also alleged that on Nov. 1, 1978, De Lorean signed a contract in Geneva, Switzerland, with GPD Services Inc., a Panamanian corporation for research on the sports car.

Under this agreement, GPD was paid by the research partnership about $12.6 million in 1978 and 1979, and $5.1 million by De Lorean Motor Co. in 1978. GPD subcontracted the work to Lotus Cars Ltd. of Norwich, England, which performed all research and development.

The indictment said, however, that only about $137,000 of the $17.7 million paid to GPD ever stayed with Lotus. The balance of the money, and specifically the $12.5 million paid by the partnership to GPD in 1978 and 1979, is the focus of the indictment.

The charges further stated that between November 1978 and September 1979, Swiss attorney Jacques Wittmer invested $8.5 million of the partnership money held in escrow into various European banks on the behalf of De Lorean.

With interest, that amount grew to $9.3 million, Shere said. Of that, $8.9 million was used to fully back and secure a personal loan from the Pierson bank in Amsterdam.

The transfer of that $8.9 million to De Lorean's personal bank account at Citibank Corp. in New York "completed this back-to-back transaction through which the funds of DRLP were funneled to De Lorean," according to the indictment.